Nova Scotia Wants to Export Marcellus Gas to Europe, Lacks Pipes

May 7, 2014

Russia is once again threatening the Ukraine with shutting off natural gas supplies to and through the country. The Ukraine supplies much of Europe with natural gas from Russia. It’s creating a near-crisis in Europe–and yet the Europeans are being European and still slow to move on shale drilling in the abundant supplies beneath their feet. Good for the U.S. and good for Canada, who (if we can get exporting) stand to supply them with cheap natgas and start to reverse our trade imbalance.

Nova Scotia, Canada really really wants to be one of the sources of LNG for Europe. They’re ready to ramp up LNG shipments–now all they need is the natural gas! Canada is more like Europe than the U.S. Quebec has an enormous supply of Utica Shale gas beneath them–but they have an ongoing shale drilling moratorium like New York State. Nova Scotia wants to tap into the Marcellus and Utica in the U.S., but pipelines north (or rather lack of them) are a problem. And then there’s the politics of getting gas from the U.S. What to do?…